Facebook boasts some 640 million users worldwide; Twitter receives more than 95 million Tweets every day, and Yelp, a website featuring feedback on service providers, has surpassed 50 million unique monthly users. Social media, in one form or another, is undoubtedly here to stay. In fact, 90 percent of consumers online say they trust recommendations from people they know and 70 percent trust opinions of unknown users.

In the recent past, brands -- especially those in the hospitality industry -- had to rely on “small sample size” shopper reports, dated surveys and/or inconsistent comment cards to evaluate customer perspectives. Now, with all of the websites devoted to reviews and comments from customers, everyone is a critic. Furthermore, the reach and influence of these consumer critics is skyrocketing -- through social media. Capitalizing on all of this instant information, by presenting it in a way that is understandable and actionable, is critical.

At the same time, stories of the effects of employee motivation, engagement and overall attitude on customer service abound. However, one company has found that linking employees directly to what customers are saying online has dramatically increased staff ownership of the employee/customer relationship. Enter Minnesota-based Parasole Restaurant Holdings, founders of eclectic, leading-edge concept restaurants, including Buca Di Beppo.

Partnering with newBrandAnaltyics, Parasole effectively captures a complete, real-time view of its customer feedback online, synthesizes it and generates actionable insights that can immediately improve customer satisfaction and increase revenue.

“Many companies like Parasole are also seeing that sharing online customer feedback from social media channels with their employees gives them a renewed and sustained sense of motivation for and ownership of customer service and the overall customer experience,” said Ashish Gambhir, co-founder of newBrandAnalytics.

Armed with this type of customer feedback data, Parasole employees now understand that every customer experience counts, because they read about it on the Internet.

Wise employers, especially those in the service industries, will harness the power of online customer feedback to engage their employees in making things better, adding the incentive of cash reward.